


It's miya and reki who sabotaged the pipes

by Satans_Niece



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: 7 Days - Freeform, Carla - Freeform, Grey Sweatpants, Lovers?, M/M, MatchaBlossom-centric, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Sharing an apartment, Slow Burn, ahaha gay italien supremacy, and they were roomates, badass!Joe, badass!cherry, cherry's yukata nonsense, friends to lovers?, i'm getting ahead of myself, joe exists shirtless or in his chef's uniform I don't make the rules, kind of, neurodivergent!cherry, not beta read we die like men, rip carla's place as the most important thing in cherry's life, rivals to lovers?, writing from my experience with OCD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:22:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29323896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satans_Niece/pseuds/Satans_Niece
Summary: Cherry's apartment is flooded. He's determined to stick it out and just live in his studio instead.  A grown man can go a  week without showers and a proper meal, right? He'll just eat cup ramen and have meals with clients so they pay for him.  Too bad Joe has higher standards for him than that.  He has to when it's him who'll have to deal with Cherry's bitching by midweek.  Sooooooo Cherry stays at Joe's place.  Oops.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 20
Kudos: 283





	1. Thursday

“All right, I’m heading out” Joe mentioned towards the door with his coat at the man still sitting at the bar.Cherry stiffened but didn’t move.Joe tried again.

“Out, pretentious four-eyes, I’m locking up.” He said with a little more bite.

“I heard you the first time, gorilla” the snarky reply snapped like a whip.

Cherry slid smoothly up from his seat and slipped past Joe and out of the restaurant.Joe watched him walk down the small street for a second before realizing what was wrong.

“Kaoru…” He started, puzzled, “Isn’t your apartment the other way?”

Cherry started walking faster while muttering under his breath. Joe sighed and locked the door, deciding to follow the idiot before he calculated himself into a ditch.Cherry was an expert at the things that he was good at, but his common sense department was lacking in all the ways his genius was not.True to his intuition, Joe and Cherry ended up back at Cherry’s studio and not the other direction, Cherry’s apartment.

“Why are we at your studio, shitty glasses?”

“Why are you following me, idiot monkey?”  
“There’s something wrong with your apartment, isn’t there.”  
Cherry finally turned around, looking pissed off and sheepish at the same time.“A water pipe broke in the apartment above mine and I’m not allowed to stay in it while they do the repairs because there’s an issue with exposed insulation.”

Joe sighed.“You know this is the part where you say ‘hey, Joe, can I stay at your place for a couple days’ and when you decide to live in your studio for a week?”

Cherry jabbed back indignantly. “I have a backup of Carla at my studio and they let me in to get my clothes and stuff.”

“Do you even have running water?”

“Yeah a whole half bath, Ape.”

“And a bed?” Joe doubted.

“The tatami mats are fine.” Cherry answered staunchly.

“How long will the repairs take?” he sighed.

“……A week”

Joe started laughing.“You’re telling me you’re going to go a whole week without doing laundry or washing your precious hair?You’re going to go a whole week sleeping on the floor of your studio and not hosting clients because your stuff is in the showroom.”

Cherry sputtered and spat out some snippy remarks about how he was a grown man and he could take care of himself but Joe wasn’t listening.

“Kaoru, you’re staying with me.” he said, not leaving room for a question.He looked the man up and down again, “You’re going to starve otherwise.” 

Cherry looked up at him with all the “make me” energy of a cornered cat.Joe slung the cursing skater over his shoulder fireman style and picked up the small duffel of his clothes and Carla with his other hand.Cherry wriggled violently and beat on his back like a toddler but Joe was unperturbed.This wasn’t his first rodeo with the pink-haired idiot’s temper.

Joe’s place wasn’t big by any stretch, just the upstairs of the building that housed his restaurant, but it had a bedroom and a bathroom, an expansive kitchen, and a little living room-area with a couch. He dumped his seething cargo on the couch and quickly gave it Carla to placate its anger.Cherry barely qualified as human when he was mad and tired, but Joe would rather risk the inferno now than having to deal with the man’s pride when he would be unable to admit he couldn’t do it anymore midweek. 

“Make yourself at home” Joe said to the wall, as Cherry wasn’t listening.

“Go away, meathead” Cherry said from the couch.

“I live here.”

“Did I stutter?”

“Ha?” Joe asked, towering over the smaller man, “Where do you want me to go?”

“Well preferably to get me a blanket,” Cherry said, eyes flashing, “I assume I’m getting the couch, and it seems that your AC is stuck on FULL”.

Joe took one hand and plopped him horizontal on the couch, but stalked off to grab an extra blanket.Stupid skinny idiot with his stupid temperature sensitivities.Didn’t he know a house was supposed to be colder at night to sleep?

Idiot.


	2. Friday

5:59am

Cherry woke the next morning to the sound of the dumbass banging around the kitchen at 6am.He was still wearing the yukata he’d fallen asleep in last night. 

Joe’s kitchen was a corner in the same room as his main living space, so there was not separation any between Cherry’s couch and the incessant banging of the ape in the kitchen.He sat up and reached for his glasses on the coffee table.

“It’s 6am” Cherry observed in a deadpan voice, hoping Joe’d get the hint that it was too damned early to be awake and making noise. Joe didn’t hear or didn’t care. Cherry blinked slowly and pulled out his ponytail, which had mostly fallen out in his sleep anyways.Joe hummed at the stove, cracking egg after egg into a pan to be scrambled.Omelette ingredients were laid out neatly in metal bowls next to the stove.Well that explained the banging.

“Why are you creating dishes to wash before you even get downstairs?” he asked, shuffling over to the kitchen area while adjusting his yukata.The obi had gotten messed up while he was sleeping.

Joe turned around to see Cherry, looking irritable and mussed, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.His hair was down, and his glasses were crooked.Joe guessed not even perfectly styled AI-calligraphers wake up looking perfect, but the sight of the usually impeccable calligrapher soft and yawning from sleep in his kitchen was still amusing. Cherry just scowled at him.No one was allowed to be in a good mood until at least 8:30.

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for anemic nerds.” Joe recited, waving his spatula.

“I don’t like arugula” Cherry sighed, looking over the arranged ingredients and seeing the acidic greens among the list to go into the pan.

“Further evidence of your terrible taste.”Joe said, still taken aback at how long the other man’s hair had gotten.The shorter man had to tuck it behind his ear to prevent it falling into his face.

“Who even puts arugula in eggs.” Cherry continued, completely oblivious to theobject of Joe’s distraction.

“People with taste” Joe responded absently.

Cherry switched tact, glasses flashing. “And why are you shirtless?? Don’t you know it’s impolite when you have guests?”

Joe blinked a minute before smirking. “Aw, are you blushing, Kaoru? It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

Cherry was momentarily rendered speechless with the implication.Of course he’d seen Joe shirtless before, it was part of his outfit for skating beefs at S.It was just different somehow to see him shirtless in his annoying gray sweatpants cooking his annoying eggs at the asscrack of dawn that was 6am.

“Idiot Gorilla” Cherry finally came back with, searching his wide insult database and finding nothing intelligent in that moment. 

“Why would I waste a shirt when I’m just going to put my uniform on in an hour anyways? I assumed you didn’t want to see me walking around completely naked, so at least give me credit for that.”

Cherry didn’t even want the image that conjured, happy idiot Joe making eggs in the nude at 6am.Some people defied all logic.Not that his sweatpants were much better, they left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Idiot.

“Well it’s too cold in here to walk around in here like that” he finally came back with.

“What are you, a grandma?” Joe asked.This conversation was getting confusing.First Cherry was mad about the arugula and now he was taking fault with Joe’s clothes? He walked around shirtless all the time.Literally all the time he wasn’t on shift, and these sweatpants were his favorite! Then he stopped laughing and realized Kaoru actually _was_ cold fully dressed with the thermostat at 22C (72F).

“I’m leaving” Cherry almost yelled in exasperation.

But he only trudged off to the bathroom, a toiletry bag the size of his head in tow.Joe should have known the guy had a skincare routine.As much as he wanted to retreat to the comfortable silence of his studio, Cherry was absolutely unwilling to be seen in public until he was at least presentable.He could accept the reality of Joe seeing him before he got ready in the morning, but strangers on the street and god forbid his clients would not receive the same luxury of that vulnerability.He coiled his hair into a loose bun and set to work trying to decipher Joe’s shower controls.He had to give him credit for using proper shampoo and not the expected 3-in-1.

20 minutes later, the sound of the shower had stopped a while ago but the shorter man had yet to emerge.Joe cocked an eyebrow and slid roughly 2/3rds of the eggs onto his own plate and left the rest to stay warm in the pan.

“Oy, princess, breakfast’s ready!” He shouted in the general direction of the bathroom.

Cherry paused in his retying of his fresh yukata.It was still too damn early.He’d already tied it once, but the folds had been the wrong way and he wasn’t in the mood to be dead today, despite how he felt about mornings. He’d rushed through his normal morning routine, not wanting to seem rude for hogging the bathroom.Still, he did not appreciate being rushed by someone else.

“I’m coming, you brute.” He yelled back, “Some of us work in fields where we’re judged appearances.”

When all of his things were neatly dried, folded, and back in their compartments of his bag, he double checked his process and decided everything was up to standard.Now he could go eat stupid Kojiro’s stupid eggs.

“Navy blue again today, huh?” Joe remarked, appearing behind him and draping all of his weight across the other man’s thin shoulders.“Are you still cold?”

Cherry was knocked slightly forwards by the sudden weight of the half-naked chef.Two large arms slung around his shoulders pinned him against Joe’s chest through the thin material of his yukata. He immediately tried to kick out the man's knees, but to no avail.

“Get off of me, oaf” he strained under the heavier man, trying to kick out his knees.Joe _was_ warm against the chill of his still-damp hair, but Cherry would never admit he enjoyed anyone touching him.No matter how cold he was.No matter how nice it felt.That was forbidden territory, not that Joe ever respected it.

“Weak metabolisms come from not eating your breakfast, shitty glasses.”Joe said good-naturedly, right next to his ear.

Cherry finally gave up on the knees and ducked down before popping up to nudge Joe into falling flat on his face.The chef made a soft “oof” as he hit the floor and had his wind knocked before rolling over to look up at the shorter man.

“Weakness comes from underestimating short people.” He snipped as Joe picked himself up. “If you put arugula in my eggs I’ll tell Carla to reprogram the climate control in your spice cabinet”

He stalked away from the bathroom towards the kitchen and saw the portion of eggs still in the pan.The eggs weren’t hot, but Joe hadn’t left them out on a plate to get cold either.They were still an edible temperature despite his disregard for Joe’s timing. He wouldn't thank him though, couldn’t let the bastard get too cocky, it was still only half past six.He ate his eggs as the gorilla cleaned up the dishes in the sink, still humming.Cherry was halfway through before he realized that there were indeed no arugula bits.Somehow that annoyed him more.

Joe left to his room to get dressed and Cherry washed his plate in the sink before putting it on the drying rack with the simply absurd number of ingredient prep bowls Joe had used to make the eggs.He wandered over and fiddled with Carla before double checking that everything was back in his bags and he’d packed away the yukata he’d worn last night.It was 7am when the chef emerged again in his uniform.It occurred to Cherry that Joe was probably going downstairs, so he should probably get out of his apartment.It would be weird to be in there without Joe, but it was also about two hours before he usually got to his studio and a good two and a half until his assistants showed up.Oh well.He’d go early and get a head start on the paperwork for the Miyazaki contract. He got his stuff together into one bag just as Joe mentioned he was heading out.

“Isn’t it a bit early for you to go to the studio? You guys don’t open until, 10, right?” Joe asked, “You can stay here until you’d usually go in as long as you promise to not try and cook anything.”

“I’m leaving I’m leaving” Cherry insisted, patting his bag, “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with my cooking ability.”

“You screwed up cup ramen” Joe deadpanned as Cherry was halfway down the stairs, “I’ll see you at lunch?”

Cherry was already gone.

———

9:30am

Cherry didn’t have any client consults scheduled for the day, so it was pretty slow.He worked on the software for a new website design for one client, and set his two assistants on the task of deciphering the requests of another.AI-Calligraphy sounded fancy on paper, but it was really a lot of programming work and the delicate task of figuring out exactly what the client wanted.Some clients were clearer than others. Joe was lucky, his business had a set menu, and things were either on it or not.Either way, today was going to be a pretty boring day of programming and passive-aggressive contract negotiation over email.Cherry would never admit it, but he got a not-small amount of pride from the fact that no one could play that game better than he could.He chalked it up to having grown up with sisters.

———

1:45pm

“No ma’am, we can’t serve you a vegan chicken parmesan.” Joe smiled uneasily at the customer in front of him. “If you’d like the vegan option that would be the fried eggplant marinara”

The woman in front of him snapped something about how she didn’t know there’d be meat in the dish she ordered and so there was no way she could be expected to pay for it.The server who’d been in charge of her table stood uneasily to the side.The lady had wanted the manager and then the chef, and here he was.How she’d gotten into middle age not knowing chicken was an animal product was beyond him.Why she’d come to the sudden realization that it was in his restaurant of all places was even further from his mental reach.

“Ma’am—

“Don’t ‘Ma’am’ me, fix what you’ve done!” She screeched in all of her entitled rage, and Joe turned towards her server apologetically.

“Aoi, you’re dismissed, go tend to your other tables” He turned back to the woman in front of him. “What would you like me to do”

“Fix it.”

“How do you want it fixed”

“I don’t know, make it without chicken!”

“Would you like it with the eggplant instead and our vegan cheese? That is the meat substitute available for this dish.” Joe repeated in his best customer service voice.

“Fine.Yes.I’ll have the eggplant.But I’m not paying for it.” She huffed, clamping a manicured hand down over her purse.The younger woman she was having lunch with looked supremely uncomfortable.Joe felt bad for her, she looked to be the adult daughter of vegan chicken lady.

———

6:20pm

Sakurayashiki Calligraphy officially closed at 6pm, and he’d sent his two assistants home while he finished up the last of his work for the day.Buttoning up contract agreements and finalizing work always fell to him, even though both of his employees did excellent work.It was his brand after all.Tapping his brush against the desk, Cherry realized he was done for the day.Carla’s server at the studio was on standby, his skateboard was quietly charging in the corner, and all of the code iterations he’d been working on were exactly on track.He itched to go back to his apartment to take a shower and prepare for tonight’s S.He wasn’t riding today unless someone challenged him, but that kid Reki had challenged Shadow again and he’d wanted to see if he could beat him this time after learning rail slides.

Instead he locked up and took the clothing bag containing his S outfit and Carla and walked back to Joe’s, taking the back stair directly to his apartment without going through the busy restaurant. He’d said make himself at home after all.Taking off his shoes, he hung the garment bag on the top of the door and sat down on his couch/makeshift bed to do some research on a new technique he wanted to program into Carla’s optimization software while he waited for Joe to close up shop and come back upstairs to get ready for S.

The whole apartment smelled like Joe’s cologne and Italian food, which wasn’t terrible, but mildly distracting in a way Cherry couldn’t put his finger on.Around seven he got up and walked over to Joe’s fridge, half expecting for the oaf to pop up and berate him for eating his leftovers.To Cherry’s surprise there was leftover curry and rice, so he warmed it up in a pot and ate that for dinner.It seemed weird to walk down the stairs into the restaurant from Joe’s apartment while it was still open, even though he regularly walked in the main entrance and sat down after Sakurayashiki closed to complain and eat Joe’s food.

He finally got bored around nine, when he knew the dinner rush would have quieted down and most of the people at the bar were there to drink and not families there for dinner.Children. He shuddered. No one noticed he came in through the other stairs, so he walked over and sat down in his usual place facing the kitchens.

“Boring day at work?” Joe said over the half-wall, spooking him.

“Contracts” Cherry answered dryly, glaring at the sauce splatter on the chef’s uniform.

“Hungry?” Joe asked, ignoring the hostility, “Or did you find the curry”.

“How did you—

“You came down the other stairs and if you’re stealing anything out of my fridge it’s going to be pre-prepared and traditional Japanese not western food. That leaves……” he paused for effect. “…..the curry.”

“No I found the curry.” Cherry sighed.

“Mhm.Test this new dessert.I don’t know if I want to put it on the menu or not.Could be too sweet." Joe said, walking back into the kitchen as he continued.

“I don’t want to eat your stupid desserts, gorilla.” Cherry muttered under his breath, but when Joe reappeared with a small cake, he dutifully took the offered fork an looked down at it.

“Well it certainly isn’t lacking in presentation” he blurted out, taking in the white cake with chocolate detailing and sakura blossoms.He took a bite.

“Tiramisu?” He asked, savoring the coffee flavor.

“Yup.” Joe nodded.

“More coffee less sugar.” Cherry said after a minute and a second bite.

“Ah.Yeah that’d balance out the frosting.”Joe said contemplatively.He went off to see other customers and boss around his kitchen staff and Cherry stared at the cake.Cherry blossoms were an interesting choice for tiramisu, which usually just had chocolate and vanilla swirled frosting on top.Were the flowers edible?He picked one off the top of it and popped it in his mouth.It dissolved in his mouth with the taste of sugar and cherries.Joe must have made it out of something and sakura simple syrup.Impressive, not that the gorilla needed his ego stroked.

Finally, Joe called out for his sous chef to close up for the night; it was time for S.

“Why am I not surprised you use a garment bag.” Joe laughed at the plastic slung over his bathroom door frame.

“Why am not surprised you don’t hang your clothes.” Cherry retorted, eyeing Joe’s own S outfit, slouched over a chair in the corner of his bedroom. 

Joe just shrugged and shut the door. 

———

2:23am

They’d didn’t get back to Joe’s apartment until early in the morning, something Cherry figured he’d regret more now that his sleep schedule was tied to an idiot who got up at absurd hours of the morning.He propped Carla against the wall next to Joe’s board, bending down to plug it in.56% charged.Not bad for after a beef.He’d gone against another doubter of his skating style, someone relatively new to the S scene and Cherry’s reputation.It wasn’t a contest.Joe had smirked when the guy had called him out and smirked even wider when Cherry had neatly handed his ass to him. 

Joe himself hadn’t done any beefs, just played around on the rails in the factory, drawing a crowd of fangirls that made Cherry’s nerves crackle with something he couldn’t quite identify.They only followed him around because of his body; if he ever opened his mouth other than to thank them for compliments they’d realize exactly how annoying he was.

Reki, Snow, Miya and Shadow also weren’t in the lineup that night, all four of them off somewhere working on skill building with Snow’s weird board. Cherry’d watched all of them file through in Shadow’s pink clown car and screech off to some unused offshoot of the mines.

Cherry claimed the bathroom to rinse off the fine layer of red dust that always clung to him after running a beef before slipping on the yukata he usually slept in and tying his long hair into a bun to sleep.He almost bumped into Joe coming out of the bathroom, picking his head up at the last moment to avoid the collision.

“You lose your glasses, Kaoru?” the taller man jibed on impulse.

“No” Cherry replied, too tired for a proper comeback.

Joe slid into the bathroom behind him and Cherry successfully avoided tripping on any of Joe’s furniture on his way back to the couch.He was asleep as soon as he was horizontal, glasses set on the coffee table in front of him.

Joe came out of the bathroom soon after and took a moment to see if Cherry was still awake.Kaoru had different layers when he was awake.There was the soft and polished Sakurayashiki-san his clients saw, the über-intelligent and largely intimidating Cherry Blossom of S, and the snarky, sardonic dumbass that Joe got to enjoy.Asleep though Kaoru just looked soft, the wrinkle gone from between his eyebrows and strands of hair slipping from the loose bun he slept in.One of his arms was splayed across the couch over his head, and his hand curled almost into the position he would hold a brush in reflexively.Joe doubted his own hands could do the delicate work Kaoru’s could, but he also knew the man could burn salad, so he supposed it was a give and take.Resisting the urge to brush back the piece of hair that had fallen in Cherry’s face, Joe turned around and went back to his own room, closing the latch on his door very slowly as to not wake up the shorter man snoring quietly on his couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think :D this is my first time writing for this ship. Cherry and I share a birthday weirdly enough.


	3. Saturday

6:07am

Cherry woke to the sound of Joe’s stove starting.There was noticeably less banging this morning, but the tick tick tick _fwoosh_ had been enough to wake him.Curse being a light sleeper.He let out a sigh and checked his watch. Three hours and 40 minutes of sleep.Maybe he’d go back to bed after Joe left.Sakurayashiki Calligraphy didn’t operate on weekends, but Sia La Luce was open normal hours on Saturdays.Cherry had no idea how Joe did it on so little sleep. 

Sitting up, Cherry realized his bun had come out again while he slept.Oh well, he’d fix it when he got dressed.He slid his glasses on and checked Carla’s charge. 100%.He disconnected the cord and put the board into standby.He’d been prepared this morning with an extra haori jacket against Joe’s ridiculously aggressive AC.Looking over to the kitchen to see what he was making, Cherry couldn’t make out what was on the stove with the chef himself blocking the view, but the idiot was still shirtless. The thin strap of an apron snaked over Joe’s shoulders and Cherry could hear whatever was in the pan spitting.Somehow the apron was worse than Joe being regular shirtless. A real fuck-you to just wearing a damn shirt.

“You’re ridiculous” Cherry said by way of greeting as he padded over to the kitchen area in his socks. 

“Don’t forget I’m also feeding you” Joe said, turning around.His apron said “kiss the chef” in English.Cherry had no comment.

“Holding me hostage is more like.”

Joe blinked.“But you haven’t tried to escape yet?” he said, tossing what Cherry finally recognized as bacon. 

“You’d just haul me back here overyour shoulder anyways.” Cherry harrumphed.

“Nah, you’d get bridal carry next time.” Joe informed him, “Extra humiliation”

Cherry blushed despite himself.Joe definitely didn’t stare. 

“If you ever pick me up like that, you’re getting tased.”Cherry responded, more worked up than Joe expected him to be.

“Oh?” Joe said, leaning down, “Is that one of Carla’s new functions?”

“It can be.” Cherry said, getting in Joe’s face right back.

“But it’s not yet?” Joe asked, smirk gone wicked.

“No?” Cherry shot back, suddenly wary of where this was going.

Before he had a chance to sidestep, Joe swept Cherry off his feet. 

The shorter man sighed from his new perspective as Joe looked down at him, way too proud of himself for such a stupid way to end an argument.

“Are you happy now?” Cherry deadpanned, his head cradled between a well-defined bicep and a perfectly tanned pec.

“Put me down Kojiro, you’re not going to get tased, I haven’t programmed it in yet.”

“What if I don’t want to.” Joe said, raising his eyebrows, “I forgot how light you are.” _And how soft you look in the morning_ , Joe thought to himself.Cherry had relaxed completely, supported by Joe’s arms.Joe wondered if he stood still long enough Cherry would fall asleep again. 

The gorilla was making that stupid face again.Cherry wondered if he’d gotten concussed last night.He’d force Joe to let Carla run a diagnostic scan on him later, but for now he just had to make the meathead put him down first.

Cherry’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve made your point and you’re going to burn the bacon.” 

“It’s got another two minutes before I have to flip it next,” Joe replied good naturedly.

“Put me down.Now.” Cherry demanded.

“Fiiiiiinnneee” The taller man whined, gently setting Cherry down on his feet, albeit slightly rumpled.He felt like a disgruntled cat.

“You wrinkled my kimono” Cherry sniffed, “No hot water for you.”

Joe shrugged, “Cold showers are good for you in the morning.”

“Gross.”

Cherry got through his shower and skincare routine that day without incident, or being ambushed out of the bathroom.He wiped the condensation off of his glasses and put them, opening the door of the bathroom to an empty apartment.Half of the bacon Joe had been cooking was in the pan with the fixings of a breakfast sandwich next to it.A note was stuck on the cutting board.

“Come down for lunch?”

Cherry made up the breakfast sandwich and ate it, sitting alone at Joe’s kitchen table.He washed the pan and his place up and put it on the rack, and then addressed Carla.

“Wake me up at 11:30, and the next time sensors are within range, scan Kojiro for cranial abnormalities.”

“Yes master.”

Cherry sighed and flopped sideways on the couch.It was still too early.

Unfortunately for him, he wouldn’t make it to Carla’s 11:30 alarm.Around 10:40, his bracelet buzzed that he had a new message.And again.Again.By the fourth alert in three minutes, he sat up and instructed Carla to open his messages.Those brats he kept running into had created a group chat.He scrolled through the messages with annoyance, a vein appearing on his forehead.That little shit.

———

10:36am

REKI created group chat “Skating Chat”

REKI added SNOW

REKI added JOE

REKI added CHERRY BLOSSOM

REKI added MIYA

REKI added SHADOW

Skating Chat

10:47am

REKI:anyone wanna meet me at the skate park?

SNOW: changed their name to “Langa”

MIYA: changed CHERRY BLOSSOM’s name to “Mom”

MIYA: changed JOE’s name to “Papa”

MIYA: mooooom, reki needs analytics on his new skillll

REKI: WHOA CAN CARLA DO THAT

MIYA: yeah, cherry makes her do it to joe all the time

Langa: I can come

REKI: Awesome!

Mom: changed their name to “Cherry Blossom”

MIYA: changed Cherry Blossom’s name to “Mom<3”

Mom<3: I’m not your mother, Miya, and neither I nor Carla are here for your convenience

REKI: (~_~;)

REKI: Sorry Cherry-san, I know you have important business stuff to do

MIYA: you made him sad

Papa: …actually it’s a Saturday, Kaoru doesn’t have work today

REKI: YAY

Langa: can you look at my rail slide too, Cherry-san?

Mom<3: I-

Papa: think of it as giving back to the community, Kaoru

Mom<3: Fine.One hour. 

SHADOW: HAHA it’s YOUR TURN to babysit them now

Mom<3: …

Mom<3: I hate children.

MIYA: (*^ω^*)

———

Cherry put down his phone and sighed.He was being roped into being a single mother of three as a 20 year old man.How did this happen.

“Carla, sync with sensors 3 through 17, boot visual analytics and LiDAR sensors.”

“Yes master.” Carla replied, whirring. “Syncing analytics with sensors and booting LiDAR imaging software on available hardware.” Cherry’s phone flashed with the logo of his digital assistant before opening the Camera app and running diagnostics to set up the imaging software.

“Set biometric profiles KYAN REKI and HASEGAWA LANGA as baseline, expected error threshold 8%” Cherry continued.When he skated on Carla, the error threshold was usually under .1%, but she didn’t have the data to be that accurate analyzing two people without hours of skating to analyze. He slipped off his haori jacket, it being nearly 30C(86F) outside.Slipping Carla’s analytic equipment into one of his pockets, he raided Joe’s fridge vindictively for lunch.He picked a complicated-looking Italian pasta dish this time; mostly out of spite to Joe for being able to predict his food choices.It was spicy but good, the main ingredients being some sort of sausage and a creamy tomato sauce.Not bad cold.

His board attached electromagnetically to his motorcycle, but the skate park wasn’t far from Joe’s apartment.He took the back stairs that didn’t lead down through the restaurant this time and set off with his parasol to find the idiots that had dragged him out of Joe’s nice, air-conditioned apartment to do analytics for them.He should get paid for this, but he knew for a fact all three of them were broke, so it’d be kind of cruel to charge them his normal rates.Or at all.They were lucky he was a generous person.He tsked under his breath.

They were all already there when Cherry got to the park.Langa was practicing ollies kind of in the middle while Reki jumped a rail towards the front of the park.Miya was sitting on an element with one foot on this board, playing something on his switch.

“CHERRY!” Reki yelled, noticing the man with the parasol.Miya snickered and Cherry debated throwing it at him.

“SHHHHH” Cherry hushed him sharply. “What did I tell you about calling me that”

“Not outside of S” Reki recited sheepishly, “Sorry Sakurayashiki-san”

Cherry sighed.“Give me your board,” he said, holding out a hand, “I’m going to put Carla’s sensors on it.”

Reki’s eyes sparkled, “ooooooo, that’s so cool Sakurayashiki-san.” He watched Cherry place the sensors on his board.

“Just don’t knock them off when you skate.They’re designed to be in places that won’t be in the way when you skate, but there’s always a chance.”

“What’s this one do?” Reki asked, still in full-on engineer mode, looking at Cherry’s tripod.

“This is a LiDAR scanner, it takes in light and can make a 3D scan in real time of it’s surroundings.That’s how Carla is going to “watch” you skate.” Cherry explained patiently.Finally someone who appreciated his methods.

“Can I see the videos after?”

“Sure, why not.” Cherry agreed, calibrating the tripod, “Ask her for a systems check.”

“Carla-san, systems check?” Reki said, gushing over the technology.

“All systems go.Guest user recognized; Kyan Reki.Default System Clearance: Level 2.”

“SHE KNOWS MY NAME?!” Reki yelled in astonishment.

Cherry looked up from the tripod. “Yes, she knows your name, I set up a profile of you in her system so she can store your data.”

“Whoaaaaaa” Reki was practically glowing.

Langa rolled to a stop near Miya, who didn’t look up from his game.

“Like mother like son,” Miya deadpanned as Langa watched Cherry and Reki geek out over Carla with an absolutely blank look on his face.

“Don’t even try to figure out what they’re talking about,” he continued, “Japanese is my native language and not even I know or care.”

“It’s not about skating?” Langa asked, squinting.

“Nooooo, it’s definitely about skating” Miya replied, still focused on his game, “But it’s more about the technology Cherry uses for analytics.I’d bet money Reki’s going to try and get Dope Sketch to start carrying that stuff, but that’d be impossible since Cherry built Carla from the ground up.Kind of famous for that in both the tech and skating worlds for that.”

“Mm.” Langa hummed.Reki fawned over all the technology while Cherry set up and smacked his hands away from touching the more delicate parts.Langa had no idea how he made that fan move so fast.

“SHOO” Cherry finally yelled, fed up with Reki getting underfoot. “Go skate around so Carla can establish a baseline.”

Langa and Miya watched as Reki did a slow loop around the park before doing a couple ollies and jumping a rail. 

“Just skate like normal or the data’ll be off.” Cherry encouraged, fiddling with the LiDAR camera.”

Reki flipped him a thumbs up and sped up to his normal speed.

“You want to learn that technique Kojiro uses for larger obstacles, right?” Cherry asked.

“Yeah.” Reki answered enthusiastically, imitating one of the moves Miya used to jump that creek at the seaside.

Cherry watched the data readout. “I don’t think you have the strength base for exactly the trick he used, but there are a couple options that will achieve the same goal.”

“Okay,” Reki nodded, without missing a beat.There were few people in the skating community that had the same brute strength as Joe.

“Miya, you’ve volunteered yourself to guinea pig.” Cherry yelled over to where Langa and Miya sat on the halfpipe section.

“Yeah mom, in a minute.” Miya yelled back, “I’m almost done with this level.”

Cherry grimaced again, “Don’t call me that you brat, I’m not your mom.”

Miya pulled his best innocent face. “But momma I love you soooo much.”

Langa cracked up.

“Justget over here and demonstrate for Reki, you little shit”

Miya complained and dragged his feet, but he did put down his switch and skate over to where Cherry and Reki waited.

“This is why you’re the mean parent.” Miya said, dodging Cherry’s fan.

“Oh?” Cherry scoffed, “And Kojiro’s the nice one?”

Miya stuck out his tongue and didn’t quite dodge the fan this time, getting a solid rap upside the head.

“These three.” Cherry said, showing the boy his tablet. “I’m assuming you already know them.”

Miya analyzed the videos while Reki watched over his shoulder and then pulled away from the group.Langa skated over lazily to watch as Miya picked up a decent amount of speed before executing a move where he used one side of the ramp to hop a ways and land parallel to his first jump.There was no fancy one-handed handstand in the middle, but it got the job done.The other two were variants of the first, and Carla used the LiDAR data from Miya’s jumps and the baseline from Reki to calculate the efficiency of each given Reki’s style.It was a little rough to use Miya as an example since they skated so differently, but it would work.

“Okayyyy” Cherry said, watching the readout, “Reki, do you think you could learn the second one?”

The read haired boy nodded and pushed off in the direction of the element.His first attempt was a fail, but Cherry could see his movement analysis working after each attempt.Shorter than he’d anticipated, Reki did it successfully, and Carla’s display blinked as it registered the new data point.

“Your left foot was a bit far forwards, Cherry told him, “Try to have it more centered over your front truck.”

“Okay!” Reki exclaimed excitedly, and lined up for another try.He got it more solidly this time and Cherry nodded as Carla tallied the results.Langa drifted over and peered over his shoulder, a wrinkle forming between his eyebrows as he watched the graph that was Reki’s momentum track up and down.Miya yawned.

Cherry worked with Reki a little more on fine tuning his new skill, and then switched the sensors over to Langa, who was curious as to whether he was skating “right”. Reki laughed and slung an arm around his shoulders when he said that, mock complaining that Langa always skateboarded “right” and that’s why people kept challenging him.Miya tooled around doing flat-ground freestyle tricks that made Cherrywonder exactly how much time the boy spent on his board to master that level of control. 

Langa was correct he moved differently on a skateboard than the people around him, but it wasn’t wrong, just different.Reki had been correct to give him a wider stance and that foot brace.The visual detail of where he should put his feet also seemed to help.Carla didn’t have any data on snowboarding as a sport however, so Cherry couldn’t really say for sure how much Langa had adapted his style from his previous sport.Just that whatever he was doing was working.

After a couple hours Miya’s phone dinged and he muttered something about having to be home for dinner, and Langa started looking like he had somewhere to be.Only Reki seemed oblivious, running the skill again and again and trying some of the variants that could help him adapt to different terrain.Cherry called him over and collected the sensors from his and Langa’s boards before packing up his stuff to leave.Reki still had a ton of questions but Cherry was peopled out so he had Carla email him the explanations he wanted while Cherry himself parted ways with the motley crew and skated back to Joe’s restaurant.

“So do you think it’s working?” Reki asked Miya after Cherry left.

“I dunno yet, they seemed normal last night.” Miya replied

“Lets give it another few days.” Langa deadpanned, having been dragged into this by the other two.

“It’ll be harder than The Parent Trap because they don’t know they’re in love with eachother yet.” Miya reasoned.

“How do they not know they’re in love with eachother yet? They’re basically married!!” Reki butted in.

“Ya think Cherry knows he’s gay?” Miya responded, “I mean the dude has pink hair, runs an AI-Calligraphy shop, and the only woman in his life is a computer, but for some reason I don’t think it’s crossed his mind yet.”

“Mm.” Langa agreed. “Remind me again why I agreed to translate American movies for you? I’m not making that mistake again.”

“Awww, don’t worry, this is a great idea.” Reki teased.

“It’s never a good idea if you two agree on it.” Langa deadpanned, looking between the eighth grader and his friend.

“Oh come on, as long as Yamamoto-san doesn’t look to hard at her plumbing she’ll never realize that it was us.She’s half blind and it didn’t even flood her apartment, just his, so she probably doesn’t care.” Reki assured him.

“It’s less illegal than S.” Miya chimed in.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Langa moaned.

“Focus on the bright side, we’re finally giving those idiots a push in the right direction” Miya responded, tapping his switch absently.

“Yeah! And with Joe taken, there are more chicks for us!” Reki exclaimed.

“…You realize none of us are Joe, right?”Miya sighed, “The only one of us that has fangirls is the great SNOW, and.. I don’t think he cares that much.”

Langa’s face managed to somehow get more blank.

“No interest.” Reki interpreted, recognizing a lost cause.“So then… why are we doing this?”

Miya shrugged. “It’s funny to watch.”

———

10:35pm

Joe and Cherry skated down the access path to the main track of S just as the fun was starting.

“So, how’re the kids?” Joe asked good naturedly.

“Annoying.” Cherry gritted his teeth under his mask. “I’m never having children.”

“Good to know” Joe laughed, “Did Reki get that thing he was working on?”

“Yeah, and I did some analysis on Langa’s style too.It’s pretty interesting from a calisthenics perspective.”

“Mm, there you go with your fancy numbers again.” Joe smirked, “One might mistake those kids are growing on you.”

“Shut up, stupid gorilla.” Cherry replied, ramming his board into Joe’s

Joe rammed right back and grabbed the smaller skater’s shoulder.The two got into a shoving match that took them both to the start of the course where fangirls screamed both of their names as they came into view.

Cherry had never understood why both of them were so popular.He understood why Joe drew girls, being conventionally attractive and having a flashy skating style, but he didn’t think people were generally attracted to ….math.Maybe it was the sleeveless kimono.He didn’t really want to find out, or encourage them.Oh well. He stuck out a leg to trip Kojiro, who was flexing for the ladies.He landed on his face with a satisfying “Oof”.

“Oops.” Cherry said, gliding past the downed Adonis.

“KAORU!” Joe yelled in annoyance.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT HERE, SHITTY APE.”

The fangirls were unperturbed.They just kept squealing.This was pretty standard for Cherry Blossom and Joe fans.Most of them secretly wanted them to get a room already, but there were a lot of others that were just straight fangirls.

Shadow and Reki were beefing again tonight, the bet being that the winner got to redesign the bottom of the other’s board.Reki won by not a small margin, using the skill he’d worked on with Cherry to evade Shadow’s bombs.The older man screamed in frustration as Reki took out a spray bottle and busted out a shockingly accurate Hello Kitty illustration.

“Did you teach him that?” Joe whispered to Cherry.

“The design or the trick.” Cherry whispered back.

“Both?”

“Nooooo,” Cherry said, watching Shadow’s face twitch at the soft pink paint being applied over his gruesome devil decals, “The artwork is all him.”

“Like mother like son.” Miya said for the second time that day, rolling out of nowhere to annoy the shit out of Cherry.It earned him another swift whack, but the shit eating grin didn’t budge.

“Stop teasing your mother.” Joe reprimanded him lightly, more to piss off Cherry than anything else, “He gets peevish after his bedtime.”

Cherry didn’t even verbally reply to that one, just roundhouse kicked Joe in the ass.To his credit, Joe didn’t fall of his board.Miya snickered and skated out of range back to where Langa stood watching Reki work. 

Joe had to hand it to the kid, he hadn’t burned Shadow’s board like Shadow had done to him.He had more respect for the sport, but maybe less respect for Shadow’s pride.Reki finished up with a sealant spray and handed it back to its owner with a shit eating grin almost as bright as Miya’s.Joe wiped pretend tears out of his eyes.

“I’m so proud.” He exclaimed sarcastically.

Cherry snorted.

“All right,” Joe said suddenly, clapping his hands, “You and me, Cherry, you ready?”

“What are we betting?” Cherry asked suspiciously.

“If I win, you don’t get to yell at me for being shirtless in my own house.” Joe said, leveling a finger at Cherry’s chest.

“And if I win?” Cherry asked.

“I’ll put on a shirt.” Joe answered, arms crossed.

“You just want to beef, don’t you.” Cherry said, raising an eyebrow.

“What can I say.” Joe said, mock flirting, “I just want more of your delightful company.”

“Moron.” Cherry said, lining up at the start.

“Nerd.” Joe replied, lining up next to him.

Red

Red

Red

GREEN.

Reki, Miya, and Langa watched them go.

“They bet on nudity?” Reki asked.

“They bet on nudity.” Miya confirmed.

“That’s pretty gay of them,” Langa sighed, scratching his head.

“Who’s gonna win?” Reki asked, all three of them crowded around the lifestream on Miya’s iPad.

They all went silent for a minute.

The two were neck and neck coming into the factory section.Then they watched Joe smirk and say something to Cherry, but the audio was lost in the feed.Cherry blushed and reared back, his surprise allowing Joe to pull into the lead.

“Gay” Miya said, nodding.

“Gay” Langa agreed.

“Lookin pretty freakin gay.” Reki summarized.

Joe won, with Cherry hot on his heels, looking madder than a hornet nest.

2:00am

Cherry stared blankly at the screen in front of him.He was so tired. He’d come home after S to an email from one of his larger American clients.The digital element he’d designed for them wasn’t working, and they were scheduled to launch the final version of their website in two hours.He swore under his breath.They must’ve had one of their other website engineers try and mess with his design in the final edits.It was too complex to do correctly without the computing power and algorithms in Carla, so he’d be willing to bet they’d screwed it up royally with no idea how to fix it.

He set to work on the source code of the website, trying to find all the places where his code had been messed with.Carla helpfully identified 348 error codes.Fuck.It looked like he wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night.

“Are you okay?” Joe asked, watching Cherry get out his laptop at 2am after a beef.

Cherry looked up at him with absolutely no life in his eyes, “One of my oversees clients is launching their website in two hours and they want me to fix the element I designed for them because one of their other website people screwed it up somehow or else they aren’t going to pay my commission.”

Joe looked at him incredulously. “Do they know what time it is in Okinawa?”

“They’re American, they don’t care.” Cherry responded, removing his glasses and pressing both palms into his face.

“Tell them to fuck off.” Joe said, walking over and sitting next to him, “They fucked it up, they can’t ask you to fix it, it’s two in the bloody morning.”

Cherry groaned. “They’re not going to accept that, and I really want to get paid.”

“Isn’t it usually in the contract that if they screw it up themselves they can’t get service on it except for Sakurayashiki business hours?” Joe asked, trying for a different angle.

“I mean there’s a basic ‘don’t touch my code’ clause, but if I don’t fix it now they’ll probably complain, and I don’t need the bad press.I’ve just broken into the California market.”Cherry said, typing commands into his laptop.

“Have you sent anything back to them yet?”

“No” Cherry said, engrossed, “Fix first, notify later.”

Joe sighed, “Carla, is this client legally able to terminate their contract if Kaoru doesn’t do this right now at 2am?”

Carla’s logo flashed in its data retrieval pattern. “No.As per clause 3.6 in their contract, edits made to master’s work after its completion are not his responsibility.”

“Aaand, Carla, is there any way given the current situation that Kaoru won’t get paid?”

Carla’s logo flashed again. “No.The contract was fulfilled within the specified time period.”

Cherry tsked softly. “It’s not about the contract, it’s not done and it needs to be.”

“You’re exhausted.” Joe rehashed, watching the soft glow of the computer screen bounce off Kaoru’s face and glasses.

“Mhmm.” Kaoru murmured before yawning.

“You’re not going to go to sleep until this is done, are you.” Joe sighed, leaning his head on his hands.

“Nope.” Cherry said softly, enunciating the P.

Joe looked at him incredulously. “Does this happen often?”

Cherry didn’t look up. “More often than I’d like.”

“Kaoru, you need to protect your sleep.” Joe reasoned.

“Funny words from the man who wakes up at the asscrack of dawn.” Kaoru responded, eyes glazed by the blue glow of the screen.

“Not tonight.” Joe announced suddenly, “We’re both going to bed and we’re both sleeping in.” He closed his phone.

“Huh?” Cherry asked, not really paying attention.

“I texted my sous chef.She’s taking care of ingredient prep tomorrow morning.” Joe announced.

“Good for you.” Cherry said, distracted, “Unfortunately I have to—

But he was cut off by Joe scooping him up very similarly to earlier, except this time the smaller man’s arms were pinned so he couldn’t struggle.

“Kojiro— Cherry gasped in surprise, “What the fuck are you doing?!”

Joe shrugged, which was very weird for Cherry, who he was currently holding. “We’re going to bed.” He explained, “You don’t have to stay up and torture yourself but you’re going to do it anyways so instead I’m making you go to bed.”

“And you’re holding me why…”

“Because if I just told you to go to bed, you’d wait until I left and fell asleep and go right back to your project.” Joe shrugged again.

“So your solution was to kidnap me?”Cherry asked, honestly too tired to so much more than question at this point.

“Yes.” Joe nodded, “You’re already in whatever it is you sleep in, right?”

“Yeah.” Cherry sighed, resigned to his fate.

Joe hummed as he carried his rather disgruntled cargo to his bedroom.They wouldn’t both fit on the couch, so Cherry would have to suck it up and deal.Cherry was surprisingly not protesting as much as Joe thought he might, but that was probably due to exhaustion.He flopped down on the bed, still holding Cherry, and then repositioned him so he was curled against Joe, the back of his head under Joe’s chin. 

Cherry sighed.A very heavy arm pinned him in place.Joe would probably move if he got really mad, but he didn’t have the energy for that.Maybe he just wanted an excuse to get out of having to deal with the Americans.His brain seemed to accept that he had no choice at a moment in a way he’d never been able to convince it on his own, usually just giving into his anxiety and Doing The Thing.Joe’s arm was gone for a second, pulling covers over both of them, but then it was back, and Cherry sighed in resignation.No one had tried to take care of him in a long time.

“Idiot.” He muttered.

“Mhm.” Joe replied sleepily, and shifted his arm to hold the shorter man closer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I'm American and I live on the border between the US and Canada, I'm making fun of Americans because it's my civic duty.
> 
> This took a lot longer than the other two to write ahaha. I know it's longer, but I also kept getting stuck. I hope it's not too ooc. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! <3


End file.
